Open letter to County Commissioners Bob Janes, Brian Bigelow, Ray Judah, Tammy Hall and Frank Mann
To the Editor:
Once again the people of Pine Island are being besieged by the so-called developers who know what is best for Pine Island. For years, we fought and paid for a comprehensive plan for the island and it passed.
Remember the developers who wanted to tear down all the historic buildings in Matlacha and wanted to add a high-rise Holiday Inn in Bokeelia? Then there was Hightower, who wanted the fishing pier in Bokeelia to extend a floating dock for 50 to 100-foot yachts. Can you just imagine those docks coming loose in a hurricane, tearing out the I-75 bridge and the U.S. 41 bridge in Punta Gorda? Then the filling in the freshwater lake across from the Catholic church, wanted to build a migrant community isolating our wonderful Hispanic friends. Then there was the proposed nudist community, the wall behind the Medical Center belongs to the great project. When my husband and I moved here and built our home in 1983, there were, I believe, two gas stations, in St. James and in Bokeelia at the St. James Grocery Store and the Grab Bag. There were the paint store, one bank, the fire department and EMS at the center. There were fire stations in Bokeelia and Matlacha staffed by volunteers. Today there are three fire stations and one proposed for Matlacha, several Sheriff’s deputies, doctors, dentists, lawyers, banks. I believe they just finished sinking out a fifth well, gone from four to 16 fire hydrants everywhere. I worked on that project in our area as did the rest of our neighbors. Great group.
The Calusa Land Trust has purchased hundreds of acres for conservation, along with the Randell Preserve and Nature Center, have purchased islands.
Other businesses have come and gone, cleaners, card shop, restaurants, great new ones gone, also are the best citrus groves in Southwest Florida. What do we have now? Yep, you guessed it, palm trees, palm trees and more palm trees.
Remember when the developers wanted to replace the Matlacha bridge with double lane, of course. Thank the dear Lord Matlacha is a historic district. Winter weekends there are the best — people from everywhere come.
So dear county commissioners, we do not need more commercial development, the center and Winn-Dixie are just fine. They were there after Hurricane Charley hit, remember? I pray you are listening the permanent and winter residents of Pine Island and not to the fly-by-night developer. All you have to do is look at downtown Fort Myers and Cape Coral. Stores closed, also restaurants. So out-of-town developers, go back to where you came from. No doubt you destroyed you communities as you would like to destroy ours.
Are you listening commissioners?
Helen Holfelne
St. James City